The Grace of Faith is Divine Mercy


We have celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday on the second Sunday of Easter for many years now. As I prepare these blog posts, I always consult several different texts and commentaries. Sometimes, one of the Sunday’s readings inspires me. Other times, I come across a line which speaks to me. In this case, it is the latter. A little sentence from Father Emmanuel Schwab of the Saint-Léon parish in Paris: the Grace of Faith is Divine Mercy.
It is a  very short sentence, but one which transforms the way I look at Thomas in this Sunday's Gospel. How helpful it is for us that he was skeptical! This allows us to reflect once again on the mystery of faith and the greatness of this faith in the hearts of believers. We cannot measure faith as we measure Olympic performances. It is not a question of physical or personal performance. Faith is Grace, a gift.

The Word of God is Life. It nourishes our faith. It speaks to us differently every time we approach It. The Holy Spirit continues to act through the Word of God so that it comes to life for us today. What we see in today's Gospel is the Mercy of God at work in the risen Christ who encounters Thomas. Our doubts, our hesitations do not matter. It is first and foremost the Divine Mercy incarnated in Risen Christ who gives us the grace to believe, the grace of Faith. It welcomes us when we recognize the presence of God in our lives and in the lives of others around us.

Thomas needed to see the wounds of Jesus, to touch them. When he sees Christ, his doubts vanished and he believed. He received the grace of Faith. We must not think of Faith as a voluntary act. We do not decide to believe and that is it. Faith is all the signs that God puts on our path which move our soul so that we might believe. Faith is the work of God's Mercy in people. It is love that brings us to faith and not the opposite. This love works through Divine Mercy.

All paths are good. When this spark of faith comes to us, we take care of it, recognizing Jesus Christ as our Savior and continuing to pray to the Risen Christ, Incarnation of Divine Mercy , always at working our world and in our hearts.

Let us open our hearts to Divine Mercy,

                                                                                                                                              Suzie Arsenault

 

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